Lamplighter, L. Jagi: Prospero Lost
Prospero Lost (2009)
Written by: L. Jagi Lamplighter
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Pages: 347 (Hardcover)
When emerald_ibis and I took up our bi-monthly book challenge once more, she let me make the first list. And because there have been a lot of interesting fantasy titles released recently (and because she didn't mind getting a hardcover), I plopped the latest and supposedly greatest on the list for her to choose from. She went with Prospero Lost, which--I'll admit--worried me a little. My actual study of Shakespeare is limited to his sonnets and whatnot, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Macbeth. I've seen A Midsummer Night's Dream performed, and I'm sure I've seen other Shakespearean works performed too, if I think about it. But as far as The Tempest goes? Passing familiarity. I own the book, but my knowledge of the story is based on some 1990s NBC adaptation. I worried I'd have to read The Tempest before I could enjoy this novel, but I took a shortcut instead and read the summary on Wikipedia. Then I read the blurb for Prospero Lost again and realized that yes, I'd be fine.
The premise: I'm too lazy to come up with my own premise, so we're going to BN.com: More than four hundred years after the events of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the sorcerer Prospero, his daughter Miranda, and his other children have attained everlasting life. Miranda is the head of her family’s business, Prospero Inc., which secretly has used its magic for good around the world. One day, Miranda receives a warning from her father: "Beware of the Three Shadowed Ones." When Miranda goes to her father for an explanation, he is nowhere to be found.
Miranda sets out to find her father and reunite with her estranged siblings, each of which holds a staff of power and secrets about Miranda’s sometimes-foggy past. Her journey through the past, present and future will take her to Venice, Chicago, the Caribbean, Washington, D.C., and the North Pole. To aid her, Miranda brings along Mab, an aerie being who acts like a hard-boiled detective, and Mephistopheles, her mentally-unbalanced brother. Together, they must ward off the Shadowed Ones and other ancient demons who want Prospero’s power for their own . . . .
Review style: okay, I think that unless I feel it's absolutely necessary, I'm going back to stream of conscious. Everyone okay with that? Or does anyone miss the two-part review clearly discussing what I liked and what I didn't? Let me know. This sucker's stream-of-conscious, and I'll be good: NO SPOILERS.
When I first started reading, I thought I was in trouble. No, not because I'd only read what amounted to a Cliffs Notes version of The Tempest, but because of the voice, the formality, and the kind of tongue-in-cheek dryness I've come to expect from novels where the narrator's stuck (or living) in a certain era. In this case, Miranda is very proper, and her voice, to me, reflects her preferred method of dress, which is somewhere between Elizabethan and Victorian (to be fair, the author does state the difference, but it all bleeds together in my brain, so there). I start reading about Miranda's Lady giving her a warning and then her detective Mab starting up an investigation and my eyes glaze over, just a little.
However, don't be fooled by the first chapter, which isn't wholly a fair representation of the book. Once the first bit of conflict shows up in chapter two, I'm kind of hooked. The voice just works, and I don't know if it's because Lamplighter became more comfortable with it, or I became more used to it, or both. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I rolled my eyes, but on the whole, it was quite a bit of fun. I enjoyed all the allusions to other Shakespearean works (Miranda's familiar is named Tybalt the Price of Cats--OMG-I'm-so-naming-a-cat-that-one-day!!!) and other authors. The chapter headings were also nice. While not all were as funny as "Our Father Which Art in Hell," they did provide a nice frame and arc for the chapter ahead, and I enjoyed the tone they set.
And I'll be honest, I'm really surprised I enjoyed the overall structure. Through Mab's questioning (Mab's an aerie spirit inhabiting the form of a 1940s noir detective) and Miranda's flashbacks, we gain clues that lead us to her siblings, whom she's been instructed to warn. I noticed one review on Amazon complaining about all of the flashbacks that didn't amount to anything, and at first, I thought that was the case. However, I started realizing that the flashbacks were important, that they shed light on something that was happening or on why something was happening or how it came to be, even if Miranda herself didn't realize it. This is especially obvious toward the end (when Miranda relates how a certain incident correlates with her brother's madness, which drove me INSANE because there's a CAUSE there!!!), and to be honest, the flashbacks play such a huge role in distinguishing the Prospero siblings that even if they didn't move the plot forward? I wouldn't care, because seeing the dynamics between the siblings, particularly in relation to our narrator Miranda, was important. Especially since, at first, I had trouble distinguishing them in my mind.
There's a lot to put together, and given the age of the characters, there's centuries' worth of clues and information to weave into a larger tapestry. But that's kind of the fun, because you start making connections even when the characters don't, and if they don't, you don't beat them up too badly, because you know they will soon enough.
But I will say that despite not really knowing where the story was going, I found myself enjoying the ride. Certainly, there's twists and turns and delightful nods to fairy tales and mythology of all sorts, and I find the integration of it all rather creative and refreshing. Miranda's not a perfect character by any means, and sometimes I wanted to slap her for her prim attitude and Mephistopheles*** for his two-dimensional silliness, but all in all, I enjoyed myself. I also reminded myself that this book is the first in a trilogy and that Lamplighter is clearly working with a BIG picture rather than providing a stand-alone adventure, which leads me to believe that the sequel, Prospero in Hell, will pick up right where this one left off.
My Rating
Buy the Paperback: but I'll say this: I enjoyed this book enough to be happy to buy the sequel in hardcover. Does that make sense? Basically, on aesthetics alone, I feel this book's optimal form should be a trade paperback rather than a hardcover, and really, I think it's worth more of a trade paperback price than that of a hardcover. However, I enjoyed it, so I really don't mind that I bought the hardcover. That said, I can't just say it's worth the cash, because for me, it is but it isn't. I'd rather have a trade paperback. :) At any rate: this book is a lot of fun in how it incorporates magic and fairy tale into the modern world, and the structure of the book, while seemingly aimless, is actually working to create a much bigger picture. The reader, like Miranda and Mab, just have to piece the clues together. This is a mystery with an old-fashioned gumshoe feel to it, yet combined with magical elements of a modern sort and you end up flying through the text. Honestly, the only thing that would've made the book better was if it were steampunk too, which is completely unfair to ask since it obviously wasn't the author's vision, but I kept wishing it had a steampunk setting in addition to all of the magic. It just felt like that kind of book. Prospero Lost is first of a trilogy, and no, you don't need to be familiar with Shakespeare's The Tempest to enjoy this: Lamplighter does a great job making sure you don't feel you're in the dark. And besides, there's always Wikipedia if you really want to brush up on the plot synopsis of Shakespeare's work (or you could read it, that works too).
Cover Commentary: Oh, isn't it lovely? This grabbed my attention in the store like that. The grayish pastels, the font and its placement--all of it's very appealing. Thanks to the cover model, I kept visualizing Miranda as portrayed alternately between Cate Blanchett and Anna Torv. There was another actress I thought of, but I've lost it. Maybe Gwyneth Platrow? Anyway, I hope they keep up the design of the cover art for the second book, and I hope it's just as beautiful.
*** = Oh! Well I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as . . .
Okay, okay. I know Mephistopheles is NOT quite the same as Mr. Mistoffelees. But you know what? I had that damn chorus stuck in my head the whole time reading this book because of Mephisto's name, so there! Now I'm passing the earworm TO YOU!!! Bwa-ha-ha!!!